ONE 159 Preview: Bokang Masunyane vs. Hiroba Minowa
ONE 159 comes in with a fantastic card this weekend and one of the best stylistic matchups is that of Bokang Masunyane and Hiroba Minowa. While there are two great title fights leading the card, this one has a great, old school stylistic matchup that will be exciting from start to finish, however that may be.
Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by Jarred Brooks:
Bokang Masunyane and ONE 159
Bokang Masunyane had a tough break in his last fight at ONE 156. There he took on Jarred Brooks and was pretty much dominated from the get. There, Brooks took his back and backpacked him after Bokang Masunyane tried to get a clinch situation going. There, he was choked out by Brooks standing up. No shame in losing, that’s where you learn.
But now he has to prove that he has, in fact learned. His last win was over Rene Catalan which was a 37 second finish as Catalan was leaving the clinch. Here, Bokang can be sure that Minowa will want to clinch up and get to the ground. Minowa will also be someone he wants to avoid any entanglements with on the said ground. Minowa is a submission specialist and will put almost anyone away.
To win this fight, Bokang will want to keep the fight standing against the cage and on the fence. There, Bokang can bully Minowa around and get away with a win at ONE 159. After losing to Brooks so quickly, he will need a few more. Fighting with Minowa on the ground is not the way and keeping him working against the fence is how he can find success.
Of course, Bokang is explosive as well. We saw that in his fight against Rene Catalan that he can knock you out, although he doesn’t always do that. Nor should he count on that. He will want to make Minowa pay for standing with him should he choose to do so. Working the body in the pocket to open up the head is another way Bokang can get the job done.
Hiroba Minowa Bouncing Back
Hiroba Minowa, too, is coming off of a loss to Jarred Brooks who is now fighting Joshua Pacio for the title. Minowa is a grappler first and is very dangerous on the ground as we mentioned up top. The Shooto veteran has wins by rear naked choke, kimura, guillotine and with ground and pound. When he’s on top of you, Hiroba Minowa is dangerous.
Against Bokang, he will want to use his advantages and get this fight to the ground. He is the more experienced fighter and is hell on the ground. That experience will be an asset here and even against Alex Silva, he used his grappling to get through a fight.
That fight with Silva was a fun one with too many scrambles to count. But know that Bokang will not be able to scramble to that level at ONE 159. I look for Hiroba Minowa to land some brutal ground and pound on Bokang Masunyane and make it a tough night for the nine fight veteran.
Should Minowa get caught against the fence, he will probably reverse position and use his leverage to put himself in a position to where he can make some offense out of the bad situation with potentially a sweep or throw. Either way, I’d take Minowa in this fight based on experience alone.
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In addition to covering the ONE Championship for My MMA News, Blaine Henry, the author, also analyzes fights from all combat sports across the globe.
Blaine Henry can be found on Twitter, on his podcast, and Discord.
